There is course cutting at practically every marathon. This article is not meant to be critical of The London Marathon for the fact that there was attempted course cutting. However, given how aggressive The London Marathon has been in removing runners with missed splits, it is surprising to see some obviouss course cutters still in the results over a week after the race.

Timing Data

There were very few missed timing mats at The London Marathon among the finishers. There were 9 intermediate checkpoints. Only 313 runners out of 40154 non-elite finishers missed 1 or more mat. (0.78% of runners).Out of 361,386 possible checkpoints, runners registered at 360,661 of those. (99.8% hit rate).

313 runners missed 1 or more mat170 runners missed 2 or more mats.91 runners missed 3 or more mats.51 runners missed 4 or more mats.42 runners missed 5 or more mats.28 runners missed 6 or more mats.17 runners missed 7 or more mats.4 runners missed 8 or more mats.

Not all of these runners cut the course. Some may have had faulty timing chips. A small % of missing data is expected among legitimate runners.

The group of runners that are most suspicious are the runners with multiple missed splits combined with questionable pacing.

Negative Splits

20 runners missed timing mats AND ran negative splits (faster time for the 2nd half of the race compared to their first half). This only includes runners that hit the half marathon checkpoint. There were a number of runners that missed multiple checkpoints including the 1/2 marathon mat. Some of these are slower runners that may have hit these points after the mats were pulled. A couple in that group were suspicious.

Of the 20 runners that ran negative splits and missed mats, the breakdown is as follows:

Missed 1 mat: 7Missed 2 mats: 3Missed 3 mats: 7Missed 4 mats: 3

Some of the cheating is obvious:

1:03:28 2nd Half Split

The above runner was in the group that missed 3 mats:

He ran the 1st half in a time of 2:15:25 and he ran the 2nd half in a time of 1:03:38.

He missed the 25k, 30k and 35k timing mats.

Looking at the map, it is apparent that he ran over tower bridge and past the 1/2 checkpoint and turned around before reaching the 25k checkpoint.

No 2nd Half Splits

The runner above ran the 1st half in a time of 2:05:XX. He finished in 3:29:XX. He did not hit any of the intermediate splits after the 13.1 mile checkpoint. Despite not hitting any of the 2nd half splits, he is pictured crossing the finish line looking at his watch.

Summary

The runners above are just two of the most egregious examples. Other runners have similar patterns, and I will report them.

Two runners with identical splits missed the same 3 mats while logging significant negative splits on their way to a 4:15:XX finish. This was easy to prove. There is zero chance that both of their chips experienced malfunctions on the same exact mats.

After hearing stories of The London Marathon removing runners (like Ryan Lee) and making them prove their time, I am surprised and disappointed that runners like the ones profiled above are still in the results. I pulled the results on the Wednesday after the race, so I am not aware of how many runners may already have been removed from the results before I scraped them. The numbers referenced above were based on the results posted at the time. The runners mentioned above are still in the results.

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53 COMMENTS

I cant get a ticket for London. I ran Southampton the same day – it was hot and the second half was hell. But these cheats took the place of people like me who did make it to the finish and would love to be in London.
Thanks for naming and shaming.

Sorry you can’t (as yet) get a VLM place.
I ran Southampton also:I was drooping rather in the last 10k. because of the heat, no negative split for me,I was very glad to finish without having to walk at all.
However unlike the cheats at any run you and I and the vast majority of others can look back on our medals with pride.
Happy running.

“Two runners with identical splits missed the same 3 mats while logging significant negative splits on their way to a 4:15:XX finish. This was easy to prove. There is zero chance that both of their chips experienced malfunctions on the same exact mats.”

Why? What a waste of effort! So proud of my 7hrs 49 mins. It was all me, plodding along, fighting my demons – genuinely not caring what anybody else thought of my finish time. This article has made me feel even prouder. Have made a small donation xx

I looked at the results shortley after the race and without naming the person (Club Secretary of Liverpool Running club none the less!) she PB’ed her marathon time by over 1hr (Ref Power of 10 stats) and in the second half of the race she would have pb’ed her 5k, 10 & half Marathon time as well whilst missing timing Matts in the second half. Her result has since been removed but its disgusting that someone with the title of club secretary would cheat

WAYNE, may I ask have you took the time to ask Liverpool running club or the lady herself what the situation was, according to a lot of people on the running discussion board she had pulled out of the race and was spectating the rest until a friend from another running club was really struggling and was begged to help her finish the race, according to what people are saying the lady from the running club handed her running bib to the officials after she finished and informed the race orginisers the next day, the situation is sorted, but you would of knew this if you had asked Liverpool running club or the lady herself before posting it all over the internet, have a great day WAYNE.

Dear london Marathon I am disappointed for your investigation and further for blaming someone accusing of having done something disonourable, expecially after all training, diet and hard work done. I personally ran several marathons and with an average of 1500 km/ year. This is the first time I see something like your article.
First the race is a personal challenge and apart for few there is no real credit for running, thus everyone does its best. As consenquence for those that were not fit or tired the easiast way to get back and collect their stuff was by their own (my case by tube) which stopped near the finish. It was much easier to get back in the race and do the last bit passing the line rather looking for an alternative route.
Second, having paid I don t see any reason why not to collect the valuable t shirt (of +£30) plus other gadgets. Finally from the article there appears that the “fraudolent people” intentionally remained on the list whilst for example in my case I declared just after the race (by e mail so tracked) to the organization the reasons for passing the finish. If felt appropriate it s a duty of the marathon to delete those that did not finish.
On the same point please remove my picture as my privacy is personal and don t want to share my things with others.
Thanks for understanding
Francesco Fraioli

A runner with all missing timings in london marathon 2018 and have no finishing photos. Didn’t see any other photos of her along the routes at all. She wanted to peruse with the organizer of London marathon. If you need her race bib nunber,let me know.

Yes, some of these times would qualify the runners for Boston. The purpose is to prevent them from getting into Boston, or any other race with a qualifying time. And, to deter others from attempting to do so.

I don’t need their permission to extract the data. It is publicly posted data of public results. It is no different than if I went page by page and grabbed the results manually. I am not selling or sharing the results with others (athlinks and marathonguide scrape data AND share it – typically without permission.

As I understand it facts cannot be considered copyright. Therefore results and statistics from sports events, whether it be running, soccer, golf or baseball, can be freely published by news organisations and the like.

I flag everyone. My focus is mainly on those that directly affect others through qualification, award or some other benefit like promoting their running business. I simply cannot focusNd wrote on all those that cheat with the slower times. The majority of the runners I found at London were the slower times.

And what’s to gain by naming the cheaters specifically? I only name runners that are serial cheaters or whose cheating is particarly egregious.

This site and your endevour overall is getting more and more ridiculous. Why are you publicly shaming people that simply did not cheat anyone else but themselves?( assuming no podium or BQ spot was taken). You better hope nobody calls you out when you cheat in your personal life (which you probably do because we all do to some degree. It’s human nature)

This is becoming an absolute joke and laughing stock of the running community.

I hope folks will just start cutting courses to laugh in the face of Derek Murphy.

Can you read? I never said it was acceptable. I think it’s equally as sad to call out people for their shortcomings, especially if it doesn’t impact your life. Karma is a bitch. And it’s going to bite Derek Murphy in the ass.

A “shortcoming” is something like my procrastination problem. Cheating / course-cutting at a race is character deficient and sociopathic. And this defect does prevent honest hard-working runners from legitimately getting into events requiring qualification. I honestly don’t see why you continue to come here. Why don’t you just go back to LetsRun MBs and your fellow adolescents? Or better yet, stat your own website? I LIKE having these people called out for DELIBERATE bad behavior.

If I legitimately run a marathon in the hopes of qualifying for Boston or another race, but yet not make it because a course-cutter posted a faster, yet false time, do you truly not see the issue with that? Are you that obtuse, or are youjust here to stir the pot? Derek Murphy is one man trying to keep the sport honest. If we can’t have at least that, then what is the point?

If I have a goal of qualifying for a race and I train and do everything honestly yet get denied by a cheat, then yes, my life IS impacted.

I guess if someone wants to enter a race and cut a course for a ridiculous and dishonest time it really isn’t that big of a deal with a couple of very important distinctions. It IS a big deal if someone does it and uses a dishonest time to enter a race that requires a qualifying time. It is also a big deal (in my opinion and others are certainly going to disagree) if they take the place in a sold out race of a runner that would have done the legit thing. Cheat all you want and make up all kinds of stories of glory and medals and such, but don’t take a spot you haven’t earned and don’t take a spot that belongs to someone who isn’t going to cheat. I’ve legitimately qualified for (and done) my Boston (don’t care to do it again) and I am in general not interested in crowded, sold-out races so none of this is any skin off my nose (so to speak) but this kind of cheating isn’t harmless. Earn it, don’t be a dick about it.

I do think it is important that all cheating is exposed and not just that which is likely to gain qualification for other races, particularly given how hard it is to get a place for London.

However if I have understood you correctly you will be reporting all highly suspicious cases regardless of the finishing time. Just to take one example, will you be reporting the runner who did 2:32:xx for the first half and finished in 3:59:xx after missing the mats between 20 and 40k?

Thanks. I’m gutted with my London time. The whole race went down the toilet for me pretty early on but, I’m now feeling a bit better because at least I ran the whole course! I dont care if people BQ’d or not and anyway that’s a very US centric thing, even if I had I’d never run Boston because I couldn’t afford to.

I saw two blatant course cutters who ducked off in the underpass at Canary Wharf and then I ran past them ambling along at the end of an alley at a quiet bit further along and rejoin the race.

As I don’t know London that well and I’m honest I wouldn’t have the first idea where to cut the course (although there is an out and back section) so either they knew the area really well and/or it was pre-planned. I know it was the same people as one was in a lion suit which was pretty obvious and looked wiped out.

Sometimes the mats don’t register. I ran a half marathon in Dec and it was 13 laps. For some reason one time I crossed the mat didn’t register giving me a lap that took twice as long in theory. I was initially shown as a dnf but was able to provide my Garmin data to prove I had ran 13 laps. I guess any of these runners could use their data to prove their positions

Do be aware that timing mats are actually removed towards the end for slower runners over 7 hours or so, so missing splits there are no fault of the runner and not an indication of cheating.
If over eight hours you might have 3 splits missing. They start taking down the timing arches and mats up so no way can you get a time.
The finish mat is there though, so you can see if the previous split times all fit in.
I’ve seen people trolled and lied about due to missing splits when the mats simply were not there.